Dangote Petroleum Refinery has accused the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) of pursuing personal and financial interests at the expense of workers’ welfare, following renewed calls for industrial action.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Monday, the refinery criticised TUC for declaring “full solidarity” with PENGASSAN and threatening nationwide strike action without verifying the claims against the refinery’s management.
“We are told that he who hears only from one side and passes judgment without hearing the other side is a fool. Unfortunately, the Trade Union Congress has placed itself in that position,” the statement read. “Without hearing from Dangote Refinery, the Congress has passed a guilty verdict on our management and now parrots the PENGASSAN line, zombie-like.”
Dangote Refinery alleged that the unions’ real motive is the pursuit of check-off dues, citing PENGASSAN President Festus Osifo’s comment during a Channels Television interview that the union had written to the refinery to begin remitting dues immediately after workers allegedly unionised.
“The PENGASSAN oligarchs could not even wait for 24 hours after the purported unionisation before demanding their monthly dues,” the company said, accusing both unions of being “twins from the same womb” who prioritise financial gains over workers’ interests.
The refinery further accused PENGASSAN, TUC, and allied unions such as NUPENG of failing to account for funds collected from workers, instead using them to fund “lavish and opulent lifestyles.”
“None of these unions bothers to give an account of these monthly dues. We only see the proof in their lifestyles. It is time Nigerians stood up against these enemies of progress,” the statement added.
Calling on the Federal Government to resist what it described as attempts to drag Nigeria back into “the dark ages” of energy insecurity, the refinery maintained that it is a national asset requiring protection.
Dangote Refinery also challenged the unions to publish their financial records: “Finally, we demand that TUC join its co-travellers, PENGASSAN and NUPENG, in publishing their 10-year audited accounts. Surely, the workers in whose name they all purport to be working deserve to know what the unions have been doing with their monthly check-off dues.”
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